


Spaghetti

by HurricaneOuragan, RandomnessUnlimited



Category: Kaeloo (Cartoon)
Genre: Body Image, Domestic Fluff, Eating Disorders, F/M, Married Couple, Married Kaelat, Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:21:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26754979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HurricaneOuragan/pseuds/HurricaneOuragan, https://archiveofourown.org/users/RandomnessUnlimited/pseuds/RandomnessUnlimited
Summary: Kaeloo's insecurities are acting up, so she has a talk with Mr. Cat. Contains body image and eating disorders, as well as mentions of nausea.
Relationships: Kaeloo/Mr. Cat
Kudos: 7





	Spaghetti

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: This fic contains body image and eating disorders, as well as mentions of nausea.

It was a Friday night and Kaeloo and Mr. Cat were staying in, with plans to snuggle on the couch and watch a movie. Tonight, it was Mr. Cat’s turn to cook dinner. The tantalizing aroma of spaghetti sauce and garlic bread spread through the air and teased Kaeloo’s nostrils as she stood in front of the full length mirror in the bedroom. Her soft ruby eyes gazed over her distended body. Kaeloo had always been critical of her body, but her current condition made her even more observant of the smallest details.

Stretch marks dotted her hips and thighs, like stripes on a tiger. Her legs were swollen, lending to the distorted appearance of her figure. To add insult to injury - or rather, injury to insult - her legs and feet ached whenever she walked. She idly put a hand over the bump that was protruding from her abdomen. It was hidden beneath the loose maternity top she wore, but she was still very conscious about herself. Whenever she went out in public, she could feel people’s stares burning into her as she walked past them. She knew they were disgusted. Why wouldn’t they be? She was disgusted with herself too. Her figure had never been perfect like the models you saw in swimsuit ads and on magazine covers, but it had never been this bad until now. She had known for a long time that having a child would entail sacrificing many things, but it had never even crossed her mind that what little self-esteem she had would be one of them.

Worse still, like almost every pregnancy in history, this one caused intense cravings. Her heightened sense of smell only worsened these cravings and increased her desire to consume those foods, most of which, unfortunately, were rather fattening. Under normal circumstances, Kaeloo would put herself on a diet - secretly, since Mr. Cat didn’t agree with the idea of her starving herself and was adamant that she was perfect no matter what - but she needed the extra calories to ensure that both she and her growing baby had enough energy to get by. And so she went on eating - and feeling guilty about it.

Kaeloo was brought out of her thoughts as she heard her husband approaching the door.

“There you are,” he said, planting a quick kiss on her cheek. “Dinner is ready.”

Before he could move away, Kaeloo grabbed his arm and pulled him close to her. Sensing that something was wrong, Mr. Cat wrapped her up in a side hug - front hugs were a little difficult due to the size of her stomach. The two of them remained there silently for over a minute, with Kaeloo enjoying Mr. Cat’s comforting presence. Mr. Cat wondered if he should say something, but Kaeloo started speaking.

“Do you think I’m fat?”

The question caught Mr. Cat completely off-guard, even though it really shouldn’t have - he’d known that his wife had body image issues from the time they were preteens, and this was far from the first time they’d had a discussion on the topic. Kaeloo often had questions about things like science and math, and those were easy to answer, but this… this would be a difficult question to answer. Suddenly, a thought occurred to him.

“Did Pretty say something?” he growled. Pretty had shown some signs of improving once they’d gotten to know her for a few months, but her “growth” had stagnated - one might even argue that she’d gone back to being more like her old self - and she was still a heinous, vain, self-absorbed individual. He frequently wondered why they kept hanging out with that despicable woman instead of simply cutting her out of their lives. If he got his hands on her, he’d -

“It wasn’t her.”

“Huh?”

“I don’t need someone else to tell me how horrible I look. I know I look ugly and fat and disgusting,” she said in a small voice, plopping down onto the bed and wrapping her arms around herself as well as she could. Mr. Cat sat down beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Am I fat?” she asked again, clearly expecting an answer. Mr. Cat decided that Kaeloo needed an open, honest, heart-to-heart discussion instead of insincere flattery.

“Yes…”

Kaeloo started tearing up immediately.

“And that’s okay.”

“No, it’s not!” she wailed. Tears streamed down her tomato-red face. “My whole body hurts, I feel like throwing up all the time, I can hardly move, and I look even uglier than I used to.”

Mr. Cat winced upon hearing the last part. Maybe he should have just said no… but would she really have believed him?

“Kaeloo, you were never ugly,” he says, using her real name instead of one of the many nicknames he used for her to show how serious he was. “You’ve always been beautiful to me.” It was cheesy, but truer words were never spoken. From the day he’d laid eyes on her, he’d thought she was stunning, gorgeous, and everything in between.

One of the few things both Kaeloo and Mr. Cat enjoyed was reading, and as a result, they had a large bookshelf right next to the bed. Kaeloo reached up to said bookshelf and pulled out a few magazines, opening up to pictures she’d bookmarked in them. The pictures were all of supermodels in bikinis or other revealing outfits which showed off their bodies. Their slender, blemish-free, size zero bodies. From the looks of it, these images had probably been airbrushed. Mr. Cat could see some slight distortions in the photographs. Kaeloo, however, had no way of knowing that.

“They are beautiful. I am not.”

Each word felt like a stab to his heart. His family had taught him first-hand what it felt like to think that you were not good enough, and the idea of cheerful, bubbly, optimistic Kaeloo feeling that way made him sick to his stomach.

“I’ll never be perfect,” she sighed.

“You don’t have to.”

“But -”

“The world sucks. Nothing is perfect in it, especially people. And you don’t have to force yourself to strive for an ideal that is, quite literally, impossible to obtain. Because I love you…”

He planted a kiss on her forehead.

“And your stretch marks…”

A kiss on her cheek.

“And your excess fat and cellulite…”

A kiss on her nose.

“And our baby.”

A kiss on the lips, which she returned with joy.

“Your therapist did mention that you’d be more impacted than the average person by this pregnancy,” he remarked, pulling away from her. They’d eventually realized that the ineffectiveness of Kaeloo’s therapy sessions stemmed from Jean-Guillaume’s own shortcomings and not Kaeloo’s, so they’d switched to a different therapist who was much more competent and made sure to act according to the rules and guidelines set by the Société Pays Trop Mignonaise de Psychologie.

“Should I schedule an appointment with her so you can talk to her about this?”

“That would be great, Mr. Cat,” she smiled.

“Want me to explain the physical development of fetuses in the second trimester while we have dinner?”

Kaeloo’s eyes sparkled, and Mr. Cat melted a little on the inside.

“Yes!” she smiled. Kaeloo always loved learning new things, and Mr. Cat was happy to teach them to her. Mr. Cat wanted to distract Kaeloo from the topic at hand for now and make her think of something happier, and what better to talk about than the excitement of their soon-to-be-born baby?

Mr. Cat grabbed Kaeloo’s hand and squeezed it reassuringly. A smile sprung to both of their lips. He stood up and helped her hoist herself onto her feet, taking care to make sure that it didn’t put too much stress on her swollen, aching ankles.

“Thank you, Mr. Cat,” Kaeloo smiled softly, pressing her lips to her husband’s cheek in gratitude. Mr. Cat fondly touched the area where she had kissed him.

“There’s a romantic dinner for two with our names on it in the kitchen,” he reminded her. And so they left the bedroom, hand in hand, to enjoy their Friday night.


End file.
